Holiday Weekend Hello!

Well this has certainly been an extended absence from posting, but hopefully, I'll fall back into a regular schedule now.

First let me recap our vacation to Oceanside. It was phenomenal. Rhonda, Jasper and I always look forward to leaving Arizona, especially when we get to return to California. We stayed with my amazing grandparents (Ralph and Nancy) and even got the chance to spend time with my Mom and Jack while we were there.

The big event of our trip came when we went to Sea World for the day, and when I say "day" I mean it. We arrived at 9:00 a.m. when the park opened and we left a little before 11:00 p.m.

There were a bunch of great memories of the day from Jasper standing next to the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale horses...


to watching Rhonda eagerly place dead fish in her hands so that she could feed the dolphins...


But the highlight of the day came in the evening when we were lucky enough to participate in the "Dine with Shamu" event.


This is a limited seating event that allows guests to eat a fully cater dinner meal while sitting along side the back of Shamu's tank as the whales and trainers prepare for their evening show. It was really spectacular to be that close to everything and see the 'behind-the-scenes' workings of the show. It was awesome!

Another highlight of the trip came from two trips to the beach in Oceanside. Jasper really enjoyed this and had no reservations about running head-on into the waves of the ocean and getting soaked. It was great to see him enjoying the beach experience and taking in the enormity of the ocean.


Once we returned home, it was back to the grind and that included Jasper too.


He was back at school and after being given zero, zip, zilch in the way of homework for the first week of class or to take on his vacation, he was promptly given six pages upon his return. Fortunately, he enjoys learning, but Rhonda and I were a bit baffled. We were later told that the teacher had just grabbed some pages from a work book and game him those to do since she knew we wanted him to have homework. Argh!

We also attended the school's "Open House" this past week and had the chance to talk to his teacher a little bit about the class and her plans. It went fine, but our plan is to still transfer him into a local public school once he turns five in October.

On to some bad and worse news. First the bad: the WSU cougars kicked off their 2008 college football season with a loss to Oklahoma State. What can I say, the Cougs defense made you want to cheer, but the offense made you want to cry. It will likely be a long season for the Cougars as they re-build the program but at least they're heading in the right direction.


Oh, and one this that is always awesome about college football season is getting up at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday mornings and watching ESPN's College Gameday and ALWAYS seeing the Cougar flag flying proudly in the background!

Now for the worse news: Rhonda is enjoying this three-day weekend from bed with a cold.


Hopefully she will be able to just rest-up and feel better before the new week begins, but right now, she's not feeling to well.

On Sunday, Jasper and I went down to the local aquatic center and swam in the pool for a couple of hours.


It was a lot of fun and our first trip to the pool this summer, as a water virus infected many of the pools in the greater Phoenix area earlier in the summer. Fortunately, that's all over now.

Finally, a quick funny note. If Jasper keeps up his recent shenanigans, we may be forced to dress him as Edward Scissorhands this Halloween.


The reason for this is that on Saturday, we noticed that a pair of Jasper's underwear had been cut at the waist. Upon further exploration, we came to learn that on Friday, while at school, Jasper went into the classroom bathroom and found a pair of scissors. Wanting to see if they could cut (just like every other pair of scissors) Jasper decided that there was not better canvas for his experiment than his own underwear. Yep, that's my son!

Have a great weekend!

Monday, Monday!

First thing is first - I checked my e-mail this morning and learned that my sister Shannon recently suffered a broken arm and I wanted to send out my wishes for a speedy recovery!

I don't know about all of you but the dominant television programing in our house over the past week and a half, has been the Summer Olympic game in Beijing. Even though some of the events are not normally big draws for me, I feel like that fact that this only happens once every four years is enough of a reason for me to give air rifle competitions and others a quick look.

Actually, Rhonda and I have spent the majority of our evenings watching the games and of course the dominant performance of U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps. I don't need to mentions everything about the guys here, but lets just say his 8-Gold Medals is a once in a lifetime thing to see.


This past weekend Jasper had a up and down time. It began with a disappointing showing at ice skating class as he ended up getting frustrated with his skating and we left the class early. After a long talk, we agreed that we would make the class up on Wednesday night and refrain from getting upset with ourselves for any reason.

Things quickly turned around, however, when he received his new V-tech video game, "Toy Story 2 - Operation Rescue Woody." After cleaning his room and helping do chores around the house, he got his new game and began a marathon session with it. It's actually pretty good and I was impressed with how well he was doing with some of the mathematical games.


Well on Thursday, we will be packing up the car once again and heading West to Oceanside for a quick vacation.


We are all so excited about the trip and getting to see Mimi, Bumpa, Jack and Kathi. It should be an awesome trip. We have also decided that one of the things we will be doing during our visit is making the trip to Sea World. Rhonda and I are super pumped because we love sea life and haven't been able to really enjoy it since we were members of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Jasper is also excited to see the giant "Shamu" and get up-close to all the dolphins, sharks and rays. It should be a really fun day.


That's about it for now. In case I don't post again before we leave for our trip, don't worry...we'll be bringing the camera and video camera and will have plenty to post upon returning.

Hope everyone is doing well.

School Days!

Monday, August 11, 2008 will now go down as Jasper's first official day of Kindergarten. He began Kindergarten today at a new Kindergarten and he had a wonderful day.

I dropped him off at school and met his new teacher (Ms. Taylor) and Rhonda got to pick him up and hear all the exciting details from the day which included, winning at BINGO, coloring and meeting new friends, but wouldn't you rather hear Jasper explain his first day? If so click on the video below for the highlight recap.

Thursday's Goodiebag!

Ok, Ok, I realize I haven't posted in a week, but it's not like I have had super cool stuff going on, it's just been kinda slow (not that I'm against that.) However, I am back in the saddle today and ready to throw enough stuff against the wall to by myself a few days until I post again.

First, Jasper is continuing to do great in his Kindergarten class. He is eager to get to class everyday, he tell Rhonda and I more about his day when we pick him up and as an added bonus, he's been sleeping better and longer at night. We believe this is a result of him being more challenged and involved in class and therefore using more of his energy during the day.

We are still trying to find someway to get him into the local charter school this fall, but it's not easy. We did speak to the parents of one of Jasper's classmates and she said that if the kids are in a certified kindergarten class (even through Tutor Time,) they can transfer into the local schools once they turn 5-years old. We have tried to confirm this, but haven't had much luck so far. It appears that while this may technically be true, they try to discourage the practice. Either way Rhonda and I are going to dig a little deeper into this and hopefully we'll have some good news to report.

For those of you who weren't aware, this week is "Sharkweek" on the Discovery channel. It's their 21st season of "Sharkweek" and one of my favorite weeks of TV all year. Although this season there have been a few duds as far as specials, they did have a great one on Monday night called "Day of the Shark." It was the story of four or five different shark attacks, including a Great White attack off California and it was awesome. If you happen to catch a re-run of it, it's worth watching...if you like that sort of thing.

This Saturday will be the first day of Jasper's new ice-skating class and with his regular class now being over, he will starting a five-week "Snowplow Sam" class. This will be a good one for him because he won't have to race against the hockey tot kids and it is not a 'Parent and Me' class, so I think he'll be able to concentrate a little more on the instructors and less on me being next to him. By the way, their is this dad at the ice skating class, who is the stereotypical 'sports parent.' He's always yelling at his kids and calling them names. It's pretty out of control and Rhonda and I are just amazed that this joker even comes if he's got so much attitude. Anyways.

As many of you know, Jasper is quite into music and his favorite musician is Country music singer Keith Urban. In addition to having 3 Keith Urban DVD's and numerous TV specials on our TiVo, Jasper enjoys waking up each morning to the videos on GAC and CMT and when he's not looking for the latest Keith Urban video he turns attention to what he refers to as 'his girls,' who just so happen to be Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. Put either one on and kiss his attention goodbye!


It's classic when one of their videos comes on and he starts yelling that "my girl is on, my girl is on."

One of the websites that I religiously visit everyday is a blog dedicated to Washington State University football and the athletics program as a whole. It is run by a handful of guys who do a great job of posting all the latest Cougar news and rumors. If you ever get a desire to check it out, just go to http://wsufootball.blogspot.com/. I was on there earlier today and they have a fan-made video of some past Cougar football highlights. I included the video here in case you want to take a look.



By the way, my favorite part is the opening with the voice of legendary sports commentator and WSU alum Keith Jackson setting the tone of Pullman. Take a listen and if you've ever been to Pullman you know he is 100% accurate and if you've never been there, cancel your trip to the pyramids, forget the grand canyon and take a trip to the Palouse!

Finally, Rhonda, Jasper and I are getting ready to head West later this month as we make our second visit to Oceanside this summer. Our last trip was so great and we can hardly wait to get back there in a few weeks.

That's it for now, hope everyone is well and I look forward to talking to you soon.

Jasper Says Hi!

This is just a quick post because Jasper wanted to make a video for the blog page. Just click on the play button below the video to watch. I hope you all enjoy it!

Mid-Week Update

With the week half over, I figured it was time to post again.

First a note about last weekend. Last Saturday afternoon, Rhonda's friend Lorena, who we went to the water park with earlier this summer, was having a party at her house for her friends and their kids. Rhonda and Jasper went and had a great time. There was an inflatable water slide and pool set up for in the backyard and Jasper took full advantage of it. After hours of playing in the water with Lorena's kids (Bella and Nathaniel) they stayed for dinner and desert, which for Jasper consisted of two cookies and an otter-pop!

This week has been Jasper's first week of Advanced Pre-Kindergarten and he has been doing great. His teachers have been raving about him and they all agree he was ready to make the jump to the Kindergarten curriculum. He has even started having homework at night. The last two nights he has had two work-sheets, focusing on his letters and numbers and has been eager to complete the work and turn it in the following day.

Just to keep everyone on their toes, Jasper has also been fighting off a little bit of a bug this week, but he's doing better everyday.

That's our big new this week, but hopefully in the next few days I'll get around to posting some videos of Jasper on the site for everyone to enjoy.

Hope all is well and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Weekend Update

Well another weekend is almost gone but on the bright side, there is some good news to report. Beginning on Monday, Jasper will be moving up to the kindergarten class at Tutor Time. He's been in the pre-kindergarten class for a little while, but has been spending parts of his days over the past few weeks in the regular kindergarten class on on Monday, he will be moving there full time. Rhonda and I are very excited as well. We had hoped to get him into the local charter school this fall, but since his fifth birthday isn't until after the school year has started, the odds of him being placed in the class are pretty small. At least this way, he will be learing from the same ciriculum and be ready to test into first grade next year.

On Saturday, Jasper has another skating class and after a slow start, began to turn it on in the last half of the class. Overall, he's doing very well and when this current class is over, we will likely place him in the "Snowplow Sam" class for another five weeks, to keep him on the ice and his interest high.

Last night brought a pretty impressive storm to our neighborhood featuring hard rains, deafening thunder and close lightning. The brunt of the storm lasted about an hour for us, but it was pretty impressive. The worst part about the monsoon season is going outside when it is still 103-degrees and now muggy and humid. Reminds me of being back East.

That's all the news so far, but don't forget to check back for an update on the first day of kindergarten and more this week.

Friday's Ramblings

It's been a pretty slow week out here, but here's a few notes to hold you over.

The Monsoon season in Arizona has officially begun, but we have yet to really feel the brunt of it. We got a little bit of rain last weekend, but it was pretty isolated and brief. The cool thing about the monsoons is that when it rains, it RAINS. It is usually a hard downpour for brief periods of time. The other cool thing is that seeing some awesome lightning displays are not at all uncommon during the season. Just don't decide to play of round of golf with the lighting falling or else!

According to the weather report, we have the chance to see some rain this weekend, so we'll see what happens.


I will also be donating blood this afternoon at our company headquarters. McMurry, in cooperation with United Blood Services, will be holding a blood drive all day today and since it's been a while since my last voluntary donation, I figured now was as good a time as any.

Well that's it for now, but I promise I'll have some new updates this weekend. Hope everyone is well and happy.

A New Week Begins

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Ours was fairly low key out here. Saturday morning brought another ice-skating class for Jasper, who continues to get better each week. His coach said he's doing great and we are already talking about what classes would be best for him to go into after this one ends.

Saturday's other big event was taking our dog Harley, to the groomers. He was treated to a wash, a thorough brushing, clipped nails, buffed paws and brushed teeth. As much as he we enjoy getting a dog back that doesn't smell like a dog, he enjoys it just as much.

Well, that pretty much sums up the weekend. Hopefully I'll have more exciting stories this week.

Take care.

Battered and Bruised

For the most part, Tuesday was an uneventful day, but there was some excitement in the morning when Jasper tripped getting out of the car at school and hit his head against the pavement. While there was no serious injury, it did hurt and when he went into school he was immediately cleaned up and given band-aids for the cuts.

Fortunately, all hints of pain immediately left as soon as he walked into class and discovered that Tuesday morning's breakfast was waffles with syrup. Even when I tried to make sure he was alright, all Jasper could do is point out the fact that there was syrup and waffles, while he waited to be served.
It seems that scrapes and injuries are no match for the medicinal powers of artificial maple syrup!

Post 4th of July Wrap-Up

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.

Jasper and I got a head-start on our holiday weekend on Thursday when we played hookey from school and work respectively to attend the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Jasper had a great time playing baseball on the kids diamond, running through the Diamondbacks kids play area getting his picture up on the JumboTron.

He even signed up for the Diamondbacks kids club and the "No Chew Crew" and received a t-shirt, a membership card, team stickers and free tickets to upcoming games.


On Friday, we stayed home for most of the day and enjoyed a great meal prepared by Rhonda that included home-made macaroni salad, teriyaki burgers and hot dogs. After stuffing ourselves with food, Rhonda, Jasper and I, along with Linda and Harry, who are down for a visit, went to the main city of Surprise park to watch fireworks. Unfortunately, the fireworks were scheduled to begin around 7:30 p.m. and because of fierce lighting in the area and the treat of a full blown monsoon storm, the fireworks didn't actually begin until 10:00 p.m. However, needing to get up early on Saturday, we had already left the park and were back home by the time they started. But at least we were able to see a few fireworks from another show during the ride home.

Saturday morning it was back on the move as we headed to the ice-skating rink in Peoria for Jasper's fifth skating class. This was his first time wearing his protective gear and he did another great job, moving back and forth across the ice. His teacher said he is really doing well and that he's impressed with how quickly he has taken to it.

On Sunday morning we went to a local portrait studio that was having it's grand opening and had some new photos of Jasper taken. There were a lot of great shots (as you can see below) and this week, Rhonda and I will be putting together packages to mail out to the family.





Those were the highlights of the weekend and now it's back to work this week. Look for more news this week.

Wednesday's Ramblings

I'm very excited for the Fourth of July this Friday. I think we will probably do a repeat pf last year's celebration which included going to the large family park in Surprise and taking in the carnival atmosphere before setting up our blankets on the banks of the pond and watching the city's fireworks display. But the best news is that with the holiday falling on a Friday, my work is closing the offices on Friday, but nobody has to burn a personal holiday, so we get a 3-day weekend on the house.

On Saturday morning, we will return to the ice rink for jasper's next skating class. this will also be his first with his helmet, elbow pads and gloves. Attached is photo of him decked out in his entire hockey gear, which will be used when he moves into the hockey class.

I don't know what other fun and exciting plans we have for this weekend, but Linda and Harry are in town for a visit, so I'm sure we'll find something fun to do.

Living With Speed

No real news today, so rather than just make something up (something sure to take place at a future date and time), I thought I would share with everyone that Jasper has adopted the personality of of the cartoon character Speed Racer. Now, this is not the same Speed Racer that many of you know and remember from the 70's. There is a new cartoon out on the Nicktoons Network, called "Speed Racer: The Next Generation." Here is a brief overview of the series: The original "Speed Racer" has been missing for nearly 20 years and his younger brother, Sprital, is now the headmaster at a state of the art racing school. The two top students at the school are "X," the son of famed racing legend Speed Racer and a new student named Speed. We come to learn that the new student, Speed, is actually the long lost son of Speed Racer and X's brother. There are a host of other characters including a robotic monkey (named chim-chim), Lucy, Connor, Annalease, Zile Zaysick (I coun't make this stuff up) and a number of top flight racing instructors including an elderly Asian woman confined to a floating wheelchair.

Anyways, this new series has quickly become the most popular show in the house and Jasper insits on "racing" everywhere he goes. We have also started making everything we do a race. Eating, getting dressed, brushing teeth, taking a shower, etc. all of these are races and everything is fine as long as he wins, which isn't a problem because if someone else happens to beat him, he announces that for this race the winner was actually whoever came in second, so therefore he IS the winner!
In the event you ever want to hear the dialogue of an episode, just call Jasper and he'll recite the episode to you...seriously!

That's it for now, hope this was enlightening for all of you :)

Weekend Recap

Just a quick recap for everyone of this past weekend. We went to Jasper's ice skating class on Saturday morning and he did great. Because he has done so well, they moved him into the "Hockey Tots" class, which is just a little bit more advanced than the regular class. He fell a couple times, but was quick to get back on his feet (all by himself). As usual, he was treated to a ride around the rink by his favorite instructor (Courtney) after class.

After skating we went to an outdoor water park with Rhonda's friend Lorena and her two kids (Bella & Nathaniel). The kids all had fun fighting off the 109-degree heat by running through water for a couple hours.


After the cool down, we went to the hockey equipment shop (one of only two in the state) and got a helmet, pair of elbow pads and gloves for Jasper. This will make his mother and I much more comfortable as he continues his classes and moves into hockey.

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday to all. Today was much cooler out (only about 104-degrees), especially considering we just had about two weeks straight of 110+ temperatures.

I am looking forward to this weekend. On Saturday morning, Jasper will have his fourth ice-skating class and he's a natural. Last week, he skated the entire time on his own and only fell once. I want to say that it's in his genes, but it may just be the fact the fact that he looks forward to the female instructors giving him a ride around the rink after class!

Work is going well and McMurry was just named the top place to work in the "Small Business" category. So to celebrate, the company has rented out the ballroom at The Mondrian Hotel in Scottsdale tonight and is throwing a little celebration for the employees.

Another cool thing the company did recently was allow each employee to customize their McMurry logo with a photo or background color of their choice. This is pretty impressive considering these logos are on all company e-mail correspondence and business cards. I chose to decorate mine with a picture we took last month of Jasper running on the beach in Oceanside, CA. If you haven't seen it, take a look...

Well that's it for now.